Su-a in Nepal @suanepal - Tumblr Blog

My epic 30-day adventure in Nepal

I have had no internet for the whole time (except on the last day), so now I'm going to attempt to summarise my "pushed to the limits" adventure as succinctly as I can! Pull up a chair, and pour yourself a cuppa! When I first started planning this trip last Christmas, I knew that I didn't want to go with a group. I also knew that I didn't want to do a typical tourist trek. But I did want a Sherpa guide and a cultural experience. The contact I'd been given for this specialist advice was a friend of a friend who has a trekking company in Canada. He regularly leads treks in Nepal. By a remarkable stroke of luck, he was turning 50 this year, and was celebrating by creating his own "dream trek" to explore the remote high-altitude Dolpo region. It would involve 5 or 6 mountain passes over 15,000ft and remote access, possibly by helicopter, though certainly by small planes. His dates fitted mine like a glove and he offered for me to accompany him. His dream trek had become my dream come true! With the luxury of leaving all the logistics to him, all that I had to do, was get in training and organise my personal equipment. But it all became far less straightforward when, just a fortnight before my departure to meet him in Kathmandu, circumstances beyond his control forced him to pull out! Imagine my panic! He assured me he would still take care of me remotely and offered all his help and expertise. He also offered me his team of Sherpa, cook and porter/yak/horse to be able to continue with the original plan of going to the Dolpo region without him. It was certainly becoming more of an adventure by the minute and I readily embraced it... At least, until we discovered that solo trekking is not permitted in the Dolpo region. Now this news was truly gutting. But with the help of his trekking agents in Kathmandu, with just days to go, they put together an exploratory trek of the Ganesh Himal region for me. It was purposefully off the tourist track. (Little did I know then how much I would later rue my request of "off the beaten track"!! ) The day before departure, I bought a ukelele and a penny whistle, and on arrival in Kathmandu, I also bought a musical saw...now I was ready for my Himalayan adventure! What I wasn't ready for, was being picked up the following morning from my hotel in Kathmandu at 7am by a team of 7 people!!! I couldn't believe it! A driver, a Sherpa guide, a cook, plus five porters! I felt like royalty! There were 9 of us all crammed into a single Land Rover with so much gear stuffed in and strapped on, that I thought we'd topple over! I actually couldn't believe we'd need so much stuff, but nothing was ever wasted and everything was fully appreciated (and recycled!)

In fact we restocked several times. Many meals were also made from foraged goodies in the jungle! These boys can EAT! And they made me eat too! I doubled or tripled my average food consumption each day.

The sights, sounds and smells of Kathmandu make a feast in itself, let alone the journey into the mountains with a mid-morning stop for daal bhat (daily fayre). But as we got progressively higher and into the mountains, it also got progressively more hair-raising! In an attempt to climb as much of the first mountain by vehicle, our driver put the Land Rover through an assault course which I never thought possible. The gradient was so steep, we were mainly in first gear. The path was heavily rutted, and full of rocks, not to mention on a narrow ledge. I was on the side nearest the death-defying drop. I have to admit that at one point, I closed my eyes and conjured up as many Nepalese gods as I could, and offered them my prayers. At several points up this hill, when it seemed we could go no further, due to a landslide and rocks barring our way, everyone would jump out and start shifting the guilty boulders! At another point, we just plain drove through a landslide that had become a torrential river! It was like being in a Raiders of the Lost Ark movie! (dated reference!) This was just the journey to the starting point...I haven't even begun to describe my trek, and can't really give you a blow by blow account of every day this month, so I'll try to summarise here... Heights ranged from 2,900ft to 16,400ft, very often with climbs or descents of up to 7,000ft of altitude difference in a single day (not counting the ups and downs within that!) I have had to do a lot of "digging deep". But however much I felt I was suffering, I know that my team of porters suffered far more, and the grace and cheeriness with which they carried themselves and their almighty loads, gave me a huge amount of courage, not to mention respect. Not a single day went by without rain (until the very final one!), sometimes it was torrential and unrelenting, with days of flash floods in pretty steep terrain which was terrifying to negotiate. Camping every day when everything was wet through was draining, but this made every fire we built all the more warmly appreciated! I certainly hadn't expected so much of the trekking to be done in the steep jungle. In fact, I just hadn't been quite mentally prepared for the relentlessness of inclines. Scale has a different meaning in the Himalayas. I have certainly learned how to soldier on...and on, and on...

One aspect that I was completely unprepared for, both mentally and physically, was the fact there were leeches. Zillions of them. It will be a lasting memory of the journey. Maybe because I hadn't expected them, maybe because I've never experienced them before, or maybe simply because there are armies of leeches everywhere! The jungles, rivers and grasses are leech infested. As I became more expert at spotting them, I could see them craning like snake charmers on rocks, blades of grass, and horizontally from bushes, latching onto you as you brush past. Often you couldn't stop, because during the time it took to clear them from your body and boots, you would actually gain more leeches than you could get rid of! It turns out that this summer Nepal didn't have much of a monsoon. Perhaps the Gods were saving the rains and thunderstorms for September! That's also one good reason why the trekking season doesn't really kick off until October. I've never experienced rains and storms like it...more dangerously, negotiating steep uphill jungle in flash flood situations. And have I mentioned that leeches love the rain?! My exceptional Sherpa team and I looked like the war wounded each day...boots, socks and trousers filled with blood. The tenacious critters not only crucified my ankles and calves, but they managed to climb up my legs and suck blood from my thighs, stomach, neck, hands and wrists...and even overnight on my face! I also shared my tent with a mouse one night! The temperature range was fairly extreme...from freezing in a down sleeping bag wearing almost every item of thermal, silk, wool and down clothing I possessed... to sitting as still as possible in tshirt and underwear, yet still literally dripping with sweat. The difference was very much altitude related. If it wasn't the dreaded leeches, it was the mosquitos! They did some fairly substantial feeding on me too...despite dousing myself in citronella!! On the music front, I managed to teach myself one basic chord sequence on the ukelele, which I improvised various songs to...good campfire material. And also learned a couple of Nepalese folk songs which I also transferred onto the penny whistle and musical saw. These went down a treat with the local villagers. One of the original reasons for choosing Nepal, out of all the places in the world that I might spend my month of September, was because of the horrific earthquake that had happened a year before. This last minute replacement expedition had us walking right through the epicentre, and we saw incredible evidence of it, from major landslides to huge crevasses which have since appeared. The humanitarian aid that was clearly visible was really heartwarming. It actually brought me to tears to see various plaques from individual sponsors, as well as tarpaulins everywhere, bearing the names of numerous world charities.

Ultimately, the most memorable part of the trip for me, was the quality and character of my Sherpa team. It often took my breath away to see how much they suffer, and how lightly they wear it, yet also how much joy they find in camaraderie and triumphing over the elements. I was constantly inspired by them and learned so much from them all. Man Bahardur, the Sherpa guide, is one of the most uncannily intuitive people I have met. He could sense ailments in me, that I swear were not outwardly visible. He could always spot monkeys, in distant trees or rocks, and interesting birds or insects. It earned him my nickname for him of "Eagle Eyes". I felt he always wanted the best for me. Then there was our wonderful cook, Kumar, who has such a passion for everything that he does. Calmly going about everything, with huge gusto and bold moves, yet with sensitivity and attention to detail. A dab hand with his machete, he would bring down trees for firewood, as well as fashioning strong staffs to beat out new paths through the jungle for us all. I never tired of watching him cook…and will certainly be trying out some of his dishes at home. The youngest member of the team was Bikram (aged 19), who attended to me personally, carrying my excess stuff that I didn’t carry in my daily pack, such as tent and sleeping stuff. He brought me washing water and tea in the morning and was so lovely. We spent some enjoyable afternoons chatting about his life and dreams, as well as sharing his favourite Nepalese songs which I translated onto penny whistle. He is studying computer science and he’s so bright, I’m sure he will go far. Sandeep, a tall and slender man, with beautiful deep wells for eyes. He certainly was much stronger than he looked, and the most affectionate of souls. He walked the whole way in flip flops. On our toughest day, he took a pretty deep fall off a slippery fallen trunk from a huge landslide. we were all very relieved when he reappeared with only minor scratches. It was Nima who went down into the ravine after him. Nima is hardy as hell, and absolutely at home in the mountains, his natural habitat and he just gets on with it all. What a legend! Maila, my smiling Buddha…such a strong and steady man. Always smiling and every ready to help. He had a fondness for climbing trees and collecting mushrooms. He was a great support in some pretty frightening climbs, and he managed to do it all in a pair of wellies! My biggest hero was Oh Suk, who on the day of the first monsoon floods, carried me (still wearing my backpack) across several flash flood rivers which I found mildly terrifying. He is so strong…everything seems effortless to him. Very experienced, he has been to Everest Camp 2, over 23,000ft high and slept in a sleeping bag on ice, outside without a tent! Hardcore and super cool.

One of our hardest days, involved an intense and terrifying clamber up and around a very steep and exposed jungle ravine where one slip would have been fatal. Oh Suk and Maila had dropped their huge loads and come back for me. Maila insisted on taking my pack, and Oh Suk took my hand, and they literally man-handled me at great speed as I clutched at every possible root or branch that would keep me grounded. We were like feral creatures on a rabid search for safety! When we finally reached a slightly less precarious place, the adrenaline that had been coursing so violently through my body seemed to well up in the form of tears. We all felt it, and were just glad to be alive. It was only on the very final day, that we had our first full day of sunshine this whole month. A welcome relief to finally dry our clothes, boots and tents, in readiness for our 7 hour drive home the next day in the pouring rain again! That night (last night), I invited them all out to dinner in Kathmandu, to a restaurant of their choice. We all had steak, chips and ketchup, washed down with large beers…unintentionally, they were gently nudging me back towards western society. I was a somewhat reluctant follower, and now that I am back home, I am reaching for my rice cooker and lentils...

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